WASHINGTON — After Cyber Ninjas released the initial report of its sham election review, DLCC President Jessica Post released the following statement slamming the Arizona Senate Republicans’ election review as an embarrassing, costly, and time-consuming scam:
“No matter what results this sham review could have concluded, Joe Biden won the election. Let’s be very clear: the review’s extensive funding from Donald Trump supporters, inexperienced and wildly biased contractors, and theories plucked straight from QAnon message boards were a fraudulent attempt to undermine the election and overturn the will of the voters. The crack team orchestrating this gigantic sham stooped to new levels of absurdity, scouring ballots for bamboo fibers and watermarks in a pathetic attempt to prove the most ridiculous right-wing conspiracy theories about the election. This embarrassing process should be a wake up call to Republicans across the country to focus on the real issues facing their communities instead of conspiracy-fueled, sham election reviews. Senate President Karen Fann, Senator J.D. Mesnard, Senator Paul Boyer, and every Republican senator who allowed this charade to continue should apologize to Arizonans for this massive grift and colossal waste of everyone’s time and money. We’re also looking forward to the Arizona Senate’s next million-dollar investigation into whether Big Foot exists.”
If it weren’t already abundantly clear that this election review was a massive grift, look no further than its funding, contractors, and methods:
- The company leading the review, Cyber Ninjas, has no experience conducting election reviews, didn’t even place a formal bid for the contract, and was picked over a firm that has conducted hundreds of (legitimate) election reviews.
- Cyber Ninja’s CEO, Doug Logan, is a known conspiracy theorist who pushes the “Big Lie.”
- Ben Cotton, the CEO of CyFIR, LLC, the other firm conducting the review, has consistently exaggerated his company’s experience and abilities, even falsely claiming that Maricopa County officials had deleted election files when they had not.
- The election review methodology is driven by conspiracy theorists who even scanned ballots for bamboo fibers to determine if 40,000 forged ballots were shipped from Asia.
- The scheme has solicited private donations of $5.7 million from prominent Trump supporters.
- Virginia Senator Amanda Chase, Pennsylvania Senator Doug Mastriano, Alaska Representative David Eastman, and former Georgia Representative Vernon Jones, who were all present during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January, also met with organizers of the election review.
- This election review follows Maricopa County’s audit conducted by two independent firms in February, which found that the votes were counted properly and the election equipment wasn’t hacked or connected to the internet.
- Republican Governor Doug Ducey already certified the state’s election results in December of 2020.
As a result of this grift, Arizona taxpayers must now foot the nearly $3 million bill to replace the election equipment that was mishandled by these unaccredited firms.
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